Arizona Media Law

Course Description:This seminar draws together the academic and practical elements of media law, with a particular emphasis on translating constitutional theory into legal action in Arizona. The course covers issues involving access to information (e.g., public records, open meetings, FOIA), interference with the news gathering process (subpoenas, search warrants, gag orders), limitations on content (prior restraints, libel, invasion of privacy) and other "hot topics" in media law. In addition, the course focuses on the tensions between law and ethics in the legal and journalistic disciplines, and how the aspirational considerations of the two professions both inform and obscure the duties of reporters and their counsel. Finally, the course explores the analytical and precedential limitations on the absolutist rhetoric of the First Amendment. Some background in constitutional or media law is recommended.